


Photograph

by Mayorofcattown



Category: Natsume Yuujinchou | Natsume's Book of Friends
Genre: Family Feels, Gen, natsume being a sad orphan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-04
Updated: 2016-10-04
Packaged: 2018-08-19 12:31:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8208160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mayorofcattown/pseuds/Mayorofcattown
Summary: “Yeah!” Nishimura piped up. “Your dad, wasn’t he still… around for a bit. He musta taken some photos of you.”
Natsume frowned, “If he did I’ve never seen them…” 
Natsume Week Day 2: Past/New Beginnings





	

**Author's Note:**

> So I was writing this fic before Natsume week, and realised this was a p good fit for this prompt, so I thought I may as well finish it for Natsume week. Cause why not.

“I’m back,” Kitamoto called as he walked through the door to the small apartment, his friends in tow.

“Sorry for intruding,” Natsume said in chorus with Tanuma and Nishimura, as they followed. They were in turn greeted by Kitamoto’s father and sister, who were sitting around the coffee table looking at a book of some sort.

“Atsushi, I thought you said you were going to your friend’s house, not bringing them here!” Mana whined, glaring at her brother.

“I am, I just had to pick some stuff up on the way,” Kitamoto replied. Natsume couldn’t help but find it amusing how Kitamoto’s smug grin seemed to grow directly in proportion to how much Mana pouted.

“Hey, what are you guys looking at anyway?” Nishimura interrupted, already making himself at home in Kitamoto’s house. Mana glared at him. From what Kitamoto had told him, it sounded like his sister wasn’t Nishimura’s biggest fan, though Nishimura mostly just thought it was funny. Natsume had only met Kitamoto’s family a few times, his house was too small to really hang out at, but they seemed to like him well enough (which, honestly, surprised him). 

Kitamoto’s father chimed in, “Oh we just stumbled across an old photo album, of all your baby photos.” Mana and Kitamoto both cringed in unison, while Nishimura’s face lit up.

Maybe that was why Mana had wanted them to leave…

“Baby photos!? Lemme see!” Nishimura said, shoving Kitamoto out of the way of the table. He just groaned, before sighing, resigned.

“Fine… On one condition.” Kitamoto smirked. “You guys,” He gestured to his friends. “Have gotta show off all your baby photos too.” They all froze. Nishimura’s face scrunched up in focus, before looking between Natsume and Tanuma.

“Hmm… I guess that’s fair…”

Tanuma gasped, red faced, “Ah… but mine are embarrassing…”

“Duh, that’s the point!” Nishimura said, grinning wildly. Tanuma just sighed, seemingly resigning himself to his fate.

And then all eyes turned to him.

“Natsume?”

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to share his photos, so much as…

“Um… I don’t… have any baby photos…” Natsume said to his feet, unable to make eye contact.

“What? Why not, that’s really weird…” Mana said, disrupting the silence.

“Mana!” Kitamoto chided, showing a rare bout of seriousness.

“Aw man… I bet you would’ve had such cute baby photos…” Nishimura said, sighing. “I guess we’ll just have to embarrass Kitamoto even more to make up for it.”

“Hey!” Kitamoto shoved him. “And are you sure there isn’t any photos of you as a kid? At all?”

“Yeah!” Nishimura piped up. “Your dad, wasn’t he still… around for a bit. He musta taken _some_ photos of you.”

Natsume frowned, “If he did I’ve never seen them…” And he certainly didn’t recall his other relatives taking any photos of him, let alone even allowing him to be in any of _their_ photos.

A tense silence hung over the room, and Natsume couldn’t help but feel responsible for it. Why was he always such a downer?

“But… it’s fine really. I want to see Kitamoto’s photos,” Natsume said with a broad smile.

“Are you sure it’s okay?” Tanuma asked, wearing an almost signature look of worry.

“Yes, I’m fine.”

Kitamoto’s father looked concerned, but ultimately smiled, opening up the album. “Well, this here is Atsushi when he was first born…”

* * *

 

“Your hair was so spikey!” Nishimura managed to articulate between laughs. “It was just like… shoom!” He made a vague gesture of fingers poking from his head. “You were like a baby anime protagonist!”

“Oh come on, so my hair stuck up a bit, it wasn’t that bad.” Kitamoto whined. “And Mana’s photos were way worse, honestly, she was such a terror when she was younger. And she always blamed me for it!” Natsume couldn’t help but laugh at the memory of the younger Kitamoto and Mana standing in the bathroom, toilet paper everywhere, both pointing at each other, crying.

“She still is! I swear she glared at me the whole time!” Nishimura complained.

“No, I think that’s just because it’s you.”

“Shut up!”

Tanuma spoke up, “I don’t think she likes me much either, to be honest. She wouldn’t even look at me…”

Kitamoto laughed, “Oh yeah, she told me once, she thinks you’re ‘scary looking’.”

“What!?” Tanuma gasped, red faced. “I’m not scary…?!” Remembering his first impression of Tanuma, Natsume had to admit Mana might have had a slight point… If you didn’t know him well he did come across as a little intimidating. It was strange to think about, given how he’d ended up being one of the warmest people he’d ever met.

“I think it’s the hair, you need to cut it more.” Nishimura said. “And speaking of Tanuma… you gotta show off your embarrassing photo’s next!” He tried to swing his arm around Tanuma’s shoulder, in a motion Natsume was more than familiar with, but he ended up just awkwardly whacking him. Apparently Nishimura hadn’t noticed how the difference between their heights.

“Wha-? Why me?” Tanuma whined.

“Well we were going to your house anyway, we may as well.”

Tanuma sighed, “Okay, fine…”

* * *

 

For once in his life, Tanuma was extremely relieved that his father wasn’t home. He could somehow make even the most mundane thing incredibly embarrassing, he couldn’t even imagine what he would’ve done if granted the opportunity to tell his friends about his _childhood_.

“Okay, here it is.” Tanuma said, reluctantly placing the album on the table. It was smaller than Kitamoto’s, with a more jumbled layout, and…

“Oh my god, you’re bald!” Nishimura cried, barely containing his laughter. Natsume and Kitamoto soon joined him as they both caught sight of the photos of a large, hairless baby.

“I guess you took after your father.” Kitamoto snickered.

“S-shut up. My hair just took a while to grow in, okay?” Tanuma replied, face bright red. Natsume felt a little bad for laughing, but the mental image of Tanuma stark bald was such a stark contrast against his usual mop of dark hair, he found it hard to contain himself.

“And you were so chubby too! Especially compared to Kitamoto, man he was the stiffest baby I’ve ever seen.” Nishimura continued.

“You’re just saying that cause you were born short,” Kitamoto shot back.

Deciding to ignore Nishimura and Kitamoto’s bickering, Natsume turned to the next page of the album,

and froze.

Lining the page were photos of a small (and no longer bald) Tanuma sitting with a dark haired woman.

“I’m sorry, we really shouldn’t be looking at these, it must be-” Tanuma just looked up at him surprised.

“What- No! It’s fine, really!” He slumped a little, not making eye contact. “Well- I mean- It’s not, fine… But I don’t mind you guys looking at them. Hiding them wouldn’t do any good anyway…”

Natsume wondered how much of that was true. Tanuma didn’t really talk about his family situation, probably out of consideration for him, but Natsume knew how much _this_ hurt.

By now the other two boys seemed to have noticed to commotion and were looking at the photos too, with a new found curiosity.

And remorse.

Silence hung over the room, and Natsume couldn’t help but notice Tanuma shifting awkwardly on the other side of the table. Smiling nervously, he turned the page of the album.

The woman was missing from the next spread of photos, but Natsume wasn’t sure that made it any better.

Until Nishimura’s face lit up as he pointed at one of the photos.

“Ha ha! Look at that!” The photo was of Tanuma, barely five or six years old, standing proudly in his father’s oversized monk garb, trying to wave a much too heavy staff around.

If anyone knew how to lighten the mood, it was Nishimura. Natsume could help but coo at the small Tanuma’s beaming confidence.

“And hey! I didn’t know you did martial arts!” Kitamoto said, pointing at more photos, this time of Tanuma doing various poses in uniform.

“Oh yeah,” Tanuma piped up. “My dad convinced me to, thought it would be good for my confidence. I stopped after middle school though.”

“Can you do a karate chop?” Nishimura asked, making an exaggerated arm motion, complete with sound effects. Tanuma just shook his head slowly, and Nishimura sighed. “Ah, damn. But that’s cool! I never really picked you for the athletic type, but I bet you’re actually secretly super tough!”

“I wouldn’t say that…” Tanuma said, apparently more embarrassed by that comment than the photos.

“No, he’s right, you’re actually pretty strong,” Natsume said, remembering the time they’d helped Taki clean her storehouse. He’d been able to lift most of the boxes in one sweep that Natsume could barely get off the ground.

“That’s cause you don’t eat enough meat,” All three of his friends replied in near perfect unison, before bursting into laughter.

Apparently they didn’t even need baby photos to be able to embarrass him…

* * *

 

In the end, they’d decided to save Nishimura’s embarrassment for the next day, as none of them could really be bothered going to three houses in one day. Natsume certainly didn’t have the stamina for it.

Nishimura groaned as the three of them left Tanuma’s house. “See you guys at my place tomorrow, I guess~” 

“Oh, and Natsume!” He pointed to his smaller friend. “You should call up your old relatives, your uncle or something, I’m sure someone’s got some embarrassing photos of you.”

Natsume paused. And smiled. “Okay, I’ll try.”

He doubted they would, but it couldn’t hurt.

* * *

 

Natsume stared at the number on the small piece of torn paper as the phone rang in his ear. He hoped he’d remembered the number right, if he asked Touko for it she’d have wanted to know why, and that would just be an embarrassing conversation.

The phone picked up.

“Hello, this is Tachibana.”

Natsume swallowed. “Um, hello, it’s Takashi here.”

The voice over the phone audibly tensed, “Takashi? Is everything alright…?”

He supposed it was kind of strange for him to just call him out of the blue like this. “Oh, it’s fine, I was just calling to see if you had any… photos, of me or anything, from when I was younger?”

“Photos? Eh… nah, sorry. The only photo we found in your father’s things was the one we gave you.”

Natsume smiled, belatedly remembering this was a telephone conversation. “That’s fine, I’d assumed that was probably the case. I just wanted to make sure.”

“I can have a look through his things again to be sure, but I’m pretty sure we would’ve found anything by now. Sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Natsume said, and the conversation divulged into polite ‘how are you’s and ultimately goodbyes.

And he’d known there was no way they would have had anything, that it was probably pointless to even ask. But… that didn’t mean it didn’t still hurt.

* * *

 

“So did you find out if anyone had any photos of you?”

Natsume stopped at Kitamoto’s question. They were on their way to Nishimura’s house to see his pictures. He’d apparently had a bit of trouble convincing his parents to let him have three of his friends come over while his brother was studying, but they’d agreed in the end.

“No, sorry, I called my uncle, he didn’t have anything,” Natsume said with half a smile. The three boys all sighed in unison.

“Aww… I was hoping you’d find at least something. You were such a cute kid…” Tanuma said, and Natsume froze. Nishimura frowned at him.

“How do you know he was cute? He didn’t have any photos?” He asked, causing Tanuma to go bright red.

“Er- um… I meant I’m sure he was, of course I have no way to know- er- I mean-” Natsume felt like his own face must perfectly match Tanuma’s in colour. He honestly tried to pretend that whole de-aging incident never happened. The only thing more embarrassing than your friends seeing photos of your younger self, was them _meeting_ your younger self.

At least that’s what Natsume assumed was so embarrassing, not the fact Tanuma had called him cute.

Nope. Definitely not that.

“You guys, we’re here!”

* * *

 

“Why were you calling me chubby? You were just as bad!” Tanuma laughed, pointing at a very small, very round faced Nishimura.

“Was not!” He cried back.

“Nah, he’s not that chubby, his face is just super pudgy. It’s like twice the size of your body, seriously. You almost look like Natsume’s cat.” Kitamoto added, and Natsume choked on a laugh. He had to admit, Kitamoto had a point…

“Shut up! Just cause you were born a giant... I feel sorry for your mum.” Nishimura snapped back, getting up in Kitamoto’s face. He just made an overly exaggerated gasp in response.

Natsume and Tanuma looked at each other and promptly burst into laughter. Nishimura didn’t have as many photos as Tanuma or Kitamoto, and they were much more formal, but it was still amusing none the less. Nishimura had said they apparently didn’t take photos of him and his brothers getting up to mischief, they just yelled at them for it. Though being Nishimura, there were still more than a few photos of him causing a fuss.

There were especially a lot of photos of fishing trips and other family outings. Natsume tried to ignore the dark figures in the backgrounds of a few of the photos.

Though he couldn’t quite keep his laughter contained at the sight of the local Kappa staring straight into the camera in one of them. It almost looked like a member of the family.

The number of photos seemed to drop a lot however once Natsume noticed Nishimura’s brothers reached around high school age, barring the occasional overly formal family or school photo.

Eventually after one too many times being yelled at by his brothers for making too much noise they decided they all should take their leave.

“I guess this was the last one,” Kitamoto said as they walked away. “Pity.”

Natsume hummed vaguely in agreement.

* * *

 

“I’m back!” Natsume called, sliding open the doors. Touko was there to greet him immediately, but she looked… nervous, for some reason.

“Takashi-kun, welcome back.” She was carrying a large, padded envelope. “This came in the mail for you,” Her tone was low, as if she was the bearer of bad news. “It’s from Tachibana-san.”

“Oh, thank you!” He said, taking off his shoes. Natsume couldn’t think of any reason Tachibana would send a parcel to him though, unless… No, it’d been over a week since he’d asked about that, there was no way…

He took the parcel from Touko and headed up to his room, assuring her that it was fine. The envelope was open before he’d even climbed the stairs. Inside was a short letter, along with another, smaller envelope.

He opened the letter first.

_-Takashi_

_I had another look through you dad’s things and found these. Turns out an old camera of his still had some film in it. I would’ve called you, but it seemed like less hassle to just send you the developed photos. Hope you like them._

_-Tachibana_

Natsume stopped dead in front of his desk. He’d hadn’t expected him to actually find anything, he had no idea how to react. Eventually curiosity won out though, and he haphazardly cleared his desk of just about everything and (carefully) tore open the second envelope.

Inside were around twenty photos, all of a small, blonde, (and definitely not bald) baby. Natsume knew logically it was him, but… he still couldn’t really register it as himself. It didn’t really match up with what he’d always imagined himself as when he was younger. He supposed going sixteen years without seeing any photos of yourself would do that.

“Oi, what’s that?” Natsume jumped. He’d been so distracted by the pictures he hadn’t even noticed Nyanko-sensei waddle in.

“Tachibana-san found some baby photos of me, do you want to see?” He asked.

The cat huffed, “Why would I want to see something as silly as that?”

He was still looking at the photos from the corner of his eyes, though, so Natsume showed him anyway. He took the first photo from the pile, one of him barely a few months old tucked in next to a very over stuffed toy cat, and placed it in front of the cat.

He stared at it.

And then stared at Natsume.

“I didn’t think a puny brat like you could get any punier! I knew human young were weak and useless but you take it to a new level! It’s a miracle you survived this long.”

Natsume just laughed at him. So much for not interested.

“Takashi-kun, is everything alright?” Natsume tensed up as the sound of Touko’s voice interrupted his cat’s angry yowling.

“Ah, yes, it’s fine!”

“What did Tachibana-san want?” She asked, visibly worried.

“He just sent me some old photos he found while going through my dad’s things.” Touko seemed to relax a little at that.

She smiled at him, “Oh that’s good! What kinda of photos?”

“Just some uh… baby photos.” He wondered vaguely if the Fujiwaras would even be interested in this sort of thing.

Touko froze.

“Did you say… baby photos?” She wore almost the exact expression Taki got whenever anyone mentioned Nyanko-sensei.

Natsume could feel his face heating up. This was probably more embarrassing than having to show them to his friends.

“Yes…”

Touko’s eyes positively sparkled. “Do- do you mind if I have a look? If that’s alright with you of course…?” Her gaze was switching between Natsume and the photos on his desk.

“No, not at all! Feel free.” How could he say no when she was looking at him like that.

Touko’s face lit up, and she came and sat next to him. He handed the pile of photos over to her, and she took them very cautiously, holding them far enough in front of her that he could look at them too.

She took one look at the photo he’d shown Nyanko-sensei and started cooing, “Aww haww, you were so sweet. And that kitty looks just like Nyankichi-kun.”

Nyanko-sensei just huffed at her. He wondered vaguely what must have happened to that toy, he didn’t remember it, but if it was anything like the few other toys he’d been given, it was probably something to do with a youkai.

Touko sifted through a few more photos, other similar pictures of him sleeping in a cot, and a few more of him sleeping in places that definitely weren’t cots, cooing about how cute he was all the while.

And then she stopped on one photo…

And started laughing.

“My, you were quite the trouble maker, weren’t you Takashi-kun?” She said, grinning. He looked closer at the photo and froze, smiling awkwardly.

The photo was of him, barely a toddler, looking very guilty in front of a crayon drawing on the wall.

Still giggling a little, Touko moved on to the next photo. Given she didn’t immediately start laughing, it couldn’t have been that embarrassing. Instead, she just smiled softly.

“You had a very nice garden,” She said, a little sadly. Natsume however was now the one trying very hard not to laugh. The photo was of him walking clumsily in the garden, away from his father…

And right in the direction of a youkai.

The youkai itself was barely larger than his toddler self and looked more confused than anything, so was probably harmless. To think, he’d been able to see them that clearly even from that young…

He wondered how much trouble he must have caused his father, chasing after things he (presumably) couldn’t even see.

Or would he have even known about the youkai? A part of him wondered if he would have even believed him, but he pushed that thought away, instead focussing on the photos in Touko’s hands.

That wasn’t the only photo with a youkai in it either, a few had photobombed in the background of some, and there was even one photo of him sitting right next to one, making what looked to be a very poorly constructed sand castle.

He wondered what they must have looked like to Touko.

And to his father.

The rest of the photos however were mostly harmless pictures of him and his father.

(Well, maybe harmless wasn’t the right word…)

And then Touko pulled out the last photo.

Her face fell, and she looked at him.

“Is this your mother?” She asked, smiling a little sadly as she handed the picture to him. All he could muster was a vague nod as he caught sight of the dark haired woman in the photo.

She was in some sort of hospital gown on a bed, cradling a very small baby, barely a few days old. She looked absolutely exhausted, but ultimately happy.

Natsume couldn’t say the same for himself, however.

It had hurt, seeing the few photos of him and his father happy together, but he’d been able to keep it in check, part due to embarrassment, and part due to Touko sitting next to him.

But mostly, it was his memories of his father that hurt, more than the photos ever could. He’d come to terms with that.

But he didn’t remember his mother. At all.

Seeing her there holding him, he could no longer just ignore it and pretend like she hadn’t been there long enough for it to hurt.

(Because she had.)

And he couldn’t hold back the tears any longer.

No matter how much he tried to stop them, rub at his eyes, anything, they didn’t. Not even with Touko was sitting right there.

But she didn’t say anything, just rubbed his back.

“I’m sorry, these must be very personal, I shouldn’t have just barged in here,” She whispered. “Do you want some privacy?” He nodded, keeping his eyes hidden. Touko stood up, and he couldn’t help but feel guilty. She’d been so eager to see the photos, but now probably just felt guilty. He couldn’t just let her leave without saying anything.

“Tha- thank you. For looking at them.” His voice was cracked and pitchy, but Touko still turned and smiled at him.

“Do you want to show them to Shigeru?” Her tone was sombre; he knew he could say no if he wanted, but…

As much as it hurt, seeing how invested she was in his childhood made up for it.

“Yes.”

* * *

 

“And you’re sure you don’t mind Shigeru-san looking at them?” Touko asked for what must have been the third time that evening. “It’s alright if you don’t feel comfortable with it…”

“Yes, it’s fine Touko-san-”

“I’m home!” Shigeru’s call from the doorway interrupted before Touko could ask again. Instead she just looked at Natsume.

And so he smiled, genuinely, back at her.

Shigeru had barely set foot in the kitchen before Touko approached him.

“Shigeru-san, you’ll never guess what Tachibana-san found,” Touko was once again beaming, but Shigeru stiffened at the name.

“Tachibana-san? Is everything alright?” He looked towards Natsume, brow furrowed.

“Don’t worry dear, it’s nothing bad,” She handed Shigeru the small envelope. “Have a look for yourself.”

He cautiously opened the envelope, looking more than a little confused, before recognition lit up his face.

“Oh, I didn’t think you had anything like this!” He was grinning from ear to ear.

Which was a little jarring, honestly. He’d expected Touko’s delight, she was a fairly excitable person, but he’d never seen Shigeru show anything more than a pleasant content. He never would have expected that he’d be so happy about something as cheesy as his baby photos…

He sifted through the photos carefully, before stopping on one, and chuckling.

“Aren’t you quite the little artist,” He said, looking at Natsume with a smirk.

Why did everyone keep landing on _that_ photo…

Thankfully he didn’t say anything about any of the other photos, just smiled, before placing them gently back in the envelope.

“You know, we should get copies made of these,” He finally said.

“I was just thinking that, and we could put them in an album, and-” Touko paused. “If that’s alright with you of course, Takashi-kun?”

He froze. He’d never imagined they would have gotten so invested in this- to go so far as an album, almost like… a family.

“Yes, I’d like that.” Now he was the one who was beaming.

* * *

 

Natsume, Tanuma, Nishimura and Kitamoto had found themselves on the roof for lunch, mostly listening to Nishimura whine about how bland his lunch was. He supposed now was as good a time as any to bring it up.

“Do you guys… want to come over to my house after school?”

“Yeah sure, why?” Nishimura said through a mouthful of melonbread.

Natsume grinned. “You know how I asked my uncle if he could look for any baby pictures of me?”

“Yeah…?” He could see the cautious excitement on their faces.

“Well, he found some.”

“REALLY!?” The three boys cried in unison, Nishimura almost leaping into his face.

“Yes,” Natsume laughed.

“I knew it! Are they embarrassing?”

“Yes…”

Tanuma still seemed a little cautious however, “Is it okay, for us to look at them I mean?” Natsume just nodded, smiling. Tanuma apparently took his word for it, as he beamed back.

“Ooh, did you show the Fujiwara’s?” Kitamoto asked.

“Yes, I did,” Natsume replied, and then he cringed. “I’ve never seen them look so excited…”

* * *

 

They arrived quickly at Natsume’s house after school, all of his friends being very eager to see to pictures.

All four of them.

They’d run into Taki on the way out of school, and Tanuma had apparently missed the death glares from Nishimura as he proudly announced they were going to look at Natsume’s new-old baby pictures. Taki never had been one to resist cute things, and insisted on tagging alone.

Piling into Natsume’s room, he placed a table in the centre and gently emptied the envelope on top of it.

Their eyes all lit up as soon as they caught sight of the photos. Tanuma and Taki turned their gaze to one photo in particular, of him and a stuffed cat.

“Cute!” They both cried in unison. Natsume jumped, surprised by Tanuma’s outburst. Taki he’d expected, but he’d never thought of Tanuma as the kind of person to gush about cute babies. Apparently sensing Natsume’s confusion, Tanuma stiffened, stammering some excuse about the cat looking like cute. That made Taki burst out laughing for some reason, he didn’t really understand why.

“You were so chubby man! How the hell’d you end up such a stick?” Nishimura whined, pinching Natsume’s cheeks for a few seconds. Natsume just laughed, he knew the answer, but doubted anyone at the table actually wanted to know it…

“And- ah! I knew it; even you had a rebellious streak!” Natsume just groaned as everyone’s attention fixed on the ever popular wall drawing photo. Why had his dad even taken that photo? It was so embarrassing.

Tanuma then picked up a different photo, before his face fell.

“Oh no, this one’s got a stain on it…” Natsume panicked for a second, the photos had been fine before, when could it have gotten dirty? But as Tanuma held to photo out for the others to see, he saw it.

“What are you talking about, the photo’s fine?”

It wasn’t a stain that Tanuma was pointing at.

“That’s not a stain Tanuma…” Natsume said with an awkward smile. Tanuma was confused for a second, before recognition washed over his face.

“Oh! It’s-” He stopped, shooting a glance at Nishimura and Kitamoto.

“I must have been seeing things…” He said as he and Taki looked at the picture with new found eyes. Natsume caught Tanuma squinting vaguely at a few of the other photos too, and couldn’t help but wonder how much he was seeing.

“Ha, you really haven’t changed a bit,” Kitamoto said, grinning as he held up several of the photos. Though Natsume wasn’t really sure what he was talking about. Apparently sensing Natsume’s confusion, he continued, “You still fall asleep in weird places.”

His friends all burst out into laughter, while Natsume just went bright red.

“Is that a flower pot?” Tanuma laughed, taking one of the photos from Kitamoto.

“Dude I’m pretty sure that’s not what they mean when they call it a flower bed…” Nishimura replied. “And I thought that time I found you asleep in the supply closet was embarrassing.”

“Oh my god you’re just like a cat!” Taki’s eyes lit up, and Natsume couldn’t help but worry that she was going to tackle hug him… Nishimura would never let him hear the end of it if she did that.

Thankfully she didn’t.

She was probably distracted by the next photo Nishimura came across.

The last photo.

“Oh…” He stiffened. “Do you… do you mind if we look at this?” Natsume paused. He had considered it, hiding that photo, and just showing them the nice, happy, embarrassing ones of him drawing on walls and sleeping in pots but…

They were his friends. And hiding it wouldn’t make it hurt any less.

“It’s okay,” Natsume said, without a smile.

Tanuma shot him a stern gaze, “Are you sure?”

Natsume returned it.

“Yes.”

Seemingly satisfied with the answer, they turned their eyes back to the picture. Despite what his reassurances, they still didn’t say anything about his mother.

“Aw man, you were such a teeny baby!” Nishimura cried, looking up from the photo with wide eyes. “Kitamoto was like twice the size of you!”

“I wasn’t _that_ big…” He said, rolling his eyes. “But you were pretty small, were you like premature or something?”

Natsume hadn’t really thought about it much, but now that Kitamoto had brought it up…

“I… have no idea, to be honest. No one really talked to me about this kind of thing…” The few things they did say about his birth were nothing he really wanted to hear.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t you ask about stuff like this…” Kitamoto said, interrupting his thought.

“It’s fine, really.” And it was, but judging by the sad looks they were all giving him, they didn’t believe him.

Silence hung over the small room.

Until Nishimura loudly broke it down, at least.

“Well at least you weren’t bald,” He said, a big grin across his face.

Tanuma went beet red “H-hey!”

Taki grinned, “What’s this about being bald?”

The room divulged into a chaotic mess of stutters and laughing and bickering.

And Natsume laughed, loud and free and for once not worried about how much noise he was making.

Having to see these small remnants of his past had made his heart ache like it was slowly being carved out from the inside, but being here and sharing it with everyone else, as they laughed and joked and cooed and cringed… It felt like it just might be filling it back up again.

No, it wasn’t just full, it was overflowing.


End file.
